Homeward Bound
by MaxieProdmoore
Summary: Hat Kid is a simple child of her own home planet. Now that she'd secured the item she'd needed for a rite of passage, all she wants is to get back home. However, a member of one of the Planets she stopped over ended up stranding her there. Now Hat Kid has to gather up the time pieces and get back home. To quicken the job, Hat Kid would need help from certain souvenirs of hers...
1. Chapter 1: Stranded

**Homeward bound:** a Hat in time story

In a tiny corner of the System, a spaceship floats by, within range of a planet. At first glance, it doesn't seem anything out of the ordinary… except that it looks like a house, wood, bricks & all. A house that looks like a spaceship, Or a house themed spaceship? Either way, what mattered was that the ship was fully operational by all counts. The planet said ship drifted by didn't seem particularly interesting at first glance either, but it's residents are… something else, to say the least. Though they don't know it at the time, but what should have been a normal, typical first contact between planet residents and spaceship captain instead spiraled into a grand adventure through the planet, that would change all involved...

* * *

 **On-board the spaceship**

The captain, a girl known as Hat kid, was venturing about in dreamland when suddenly…

"good morning! & welcome to another day of adventuring…", a voice called out to her from the PA system as the bed launched the pyjamas-cladded (pink with the picture of an hourglass on the pyjamas top) kid into the air and right smack on the ground, knocking her prized top hat into the air where it hovered for a while before settling on her head, changing colour to fit the rest of the outfit.

With a stretch and a yawn, Hat kid dragged her feet along towards the bridge of her spaceship as the intercom continued droning on it's usual message. She'd never get used to that intercom. Still, once the last traces of sleep left her system, Hat Kid was practically racing towards the bridge. Her usual morning routines could wait. Finding out where she was currently at is far more important!

When the door connecting bridge, bedroom (& the corridor between) opened, Hat kid was greeted by the sight of the Planet on her right; a beautiful globe that coincidentally had the same general themes as the corridors leading to her rooms.

She had little time to ponder this further when the Navigation Computer beeped out a demand for her attention; so she happily obliged. With a jump,two and a dive and a roll, Hat Kid made her way up to the nav. computer and brought up the notification. "boop!", she exclaimed happily.

That rewarded her with the navigation screen, which revealed that between her retrieval of… _that thing_ & home, she was little more than halfway there, and still had a full tank of 40 completely filled timepieces. Awesome! Hat Kid took a few steps backwards to view the whole screen, (as best as she can anyway,) with pride. It had been quite a journey to get to this point, after all, Assisting an equally young girl in saving a young man who turned out to be a river spirit that girl met before… helping some plumber to clean up the last of a certain mess made by someone posing as his shadow clone, being inspired by a young man who claims to be some "phantom thief" to steal back his life…

*Knock!*, *Knock!*, *Knock!*

Hat kid jumped and looked around nervously. That was no meteor strike. The impact would have been so much louder, not to mention, visibly damaging to the ship. Sounds more like someone loudly knocking at the airlock on her ship. But that visitor shouldn't be from the planets nearby, or the ship would have noticed any movements towards it… So what was that about? A quick jump down to the bridge floor, towards the Captain's chair reveals that yes, someone was knocking at the airlock. A man in a blue suit with an apron, standing at the airlock with no other spaceship within sight. Someone from the nearby planets after all then. A man working at a kitchen, a marketplace… But he looks like a thug, too. Whatever his business is, Hat kid was there to talk to him about it.

It seems the man had sensed Hat Kid's presence. Because he stopped hammering at the door, looked around, then finally noticed her, his eyes briefly betraying a look of confusion.

"What is this, flying boat?" the man questioned Hat kid, his funny accent almost made Hat Kid burst out laughing. But the girl had managed to keep it within her.

"All boats need to pay a toll in Mafia Town. Even in Space! Mafia come in to collect." Having said so, the mafia goon, as it turned out to be, made to open the door.

At first, Hat Kid was content to see him try. But the fact that he did managed to make progress on that promise shocked Hat Kid into action. She managed to slam the the door back in, and was just dusting off her hands in satisfaction when the goon, in his desire to see the toll collected... smashed his way in. He didn't have time to celebrate that victory, though. The vacuum of space kicked in and forced the mafia goon, and Hat kid, through the airlock. With her position, Hat kid was able to watch in horror as the vacuum caused the Timepiece vault locks to be undone and all her active Timepieces be blown out of the ship with her… All of them, leaving the ship to power down completely, leaving the poor girl stranded for quite a while.

Hat Kid huffed. "That stupid mafia goon just had to ruin everything did he? Looks like she'd have to explore every nook and cranny of this Planet just to secure every timepiece of hers again! If only that was easy…" as she entered Planet atmosphere, allowing gravity to take its course, sending her to the planet below.

* * *

 _Mafia Town Fountain Plaza:_

At Mafia Town, as they say amongst the mafia folks, when they're not working to maintain order around the place, or to deal with a certain **nuisance** , it was always 5pm around there. Nice,quiet & simple. Just how Mafia likes it. Today was shaped up to be just like everyday prior…. Till a glowing hourglass and a blue umbrella with a star on it came crashing into the town fountain, spilling water everywhere. The Mafia goon nearby sighed.

"Now Mafia has to get mop to clear the mess up. Not to mention, getting a plumber to plug the hole up and get the fountain back to normal! It's gonna be a long day for Mafia…"

* * *

 _At a corner in Mafia Town;_

Hat Kid could not help but scream as she fell through Planet Atmosphere. She'd heard of skydiving before, seen it on tv before, but this… experiencing it for herself, unwittingly or otherwise was a whole different thing all together. Initially panicky as all heck, Hat Kid's expression only changed when she saw that her trajectory would land her on top a tentage. So she stopped panicking and went into a spread eagle pose, only switching to an upright position when she was near the tentage… crashed right through said tent and landing feet first, force of habit entailing the she did a small pose as though there was a camera nearby. A smash was heard nearby. When she turned around, she saw that the mafia goon who had gotten her into this mess in the first place had slammed into the nearby wall, unconscious, but most likely dead.

Hat Kid could only feel a tinge of sympathy for the man. He was only trying to do his job? Or maybe he thought this one would be simple… and paid for it by crashing back home and most likely unconscious for a long time after that, or dead, but whatever. Now, thanks to him, she'd have to scour the entire planet just to find back the timepieces, before anyone with ill intents find out their true power.

Taking a moment to dust down and make sure She was fine, Hat Kid adjusted her precious hat and breathed. "Alright, time to get back those timepieces."

Now, she could have gone straight down the pathway in front of her, but where was the fun of that? Hat Kid, was a pretty curious kid, letting nothing but extreme danger and self preservation get in the way of finding out things. So she went up the path she saw was there before she had crashed through. From there on, she allowed curiosity to get the better of her and spent the time talking to some of the friendlier mafia goons… only to have her opinion of them being jerks and being relatively simple minded strengthened, a goon who was lamenting that his son would never be as strong as he is, grabbing codes to a red vault from slips of paper that were near it, and some balls of yarn, (some yarn balls that looked like they were ready to sprint… except she had a nice ribbon she could wear, that could allow just that, and some yarns that had tubes of purple liquid in them. Those, she reckoned, she could stitch into a nice witch hat.), before she remembered that she was there to find the time pieces and get back home in the first place!

Fortunately, the talk of the town itself had provided a valuable clue; news of a disturbance that had messed up the town's fountain, a glowing hourglass. Presto!

Even better, her own crash site was actually near to the town's fountain. I.E, if she had focused on getting to the timepiece first, she could have retrieved it much earlier. _Fantastic._

With a huff, she made for the fountain area. There, as the rumours abound suggested, was the timepiece, in the hands of a mafia goon and on his other hand was… her umbrella! When Hat kid stomped up to the goon, he didn't acknowledge her. And the other goons were too busy with their own businesses to care about what's happening. Finally, something right in a day of weirdness.

She took a deep breath and shouted; "Hey!"

The mafia goon finally turned around. That was something, at least.

She smiled and told him, "I'll take you!", pointing at the timepiece before indicating herself.

The act of claiming the timepiece to be her property angered the goon, to be sure. Fortunately, it did not anger him enough to launch an assault on the young girl, instead contenting himself to keeping Hat kid at arms length with the umbrella holding hand and keeping the time piece out of her reach, her sounds of struggle cheering him up enough to smile and giving a contented chuckle.

Seeing that the goon held her umbrella in a loose grip, Hat kid seized the opportunity to take it back and point it at the goon's face. Now, this goon may pretend to be a tough guy, but in actuality, he was just a bully targeting the helpless, with little hope coming out top against someone with actual combat experience. Now, to the goon's credit, he did manage to stare down against hat kid. But after a while, it proved too much and…

"Nooooooooooooo!" the goon cried out, fleeing with tears in his eyes.

Maybe the nearby goons were trying their hardest to just be minding their own businesses, or were just plain near deaf, but not one goon moved to intervene. Which suited Hat kid just fine. It allowed her to show just what she's made of, exert her presence as an equal to them where the firepower was concerned.

"Down with the mafia!" Hat kid shouted, now chasing the goon and giving him a good wack with her umbrella. After a few whacks of the umbrella, the goon exploded.

"Thank you!" Hat kid exclaimed, waving happily at the spot where the mafia goon would be at. The timepiece, now free from any grasp, floated at the spot it fell. Hat kid raced towards the hourglass and walked around it. No damage, it seemed. Now as relieved as the aura the artifact was generating, Hat kid jumped up and grabbed the timepiece, twirled around and held it aloft.

"Misson accomplished! Time to head back to the ship." Focusing her thoughts on the ship, Hat kid and the timepiece teleported there.

* * *

The ship's bridge:

"The bridge seems fine," Hat Kid thought to herself. "Sure, there's the damage to the airlock and the timepiece vault, but everything else seems to be here."

Having placed the time piece back in, Hat kid touched the button next to her kitchen doors. The lights immediately turned back on.

"Alright! Power's back!" Hat kid exclaimed, doing a jig on the spot. A thorough check later on all accessible areas of the ship (the bridge and the kitchen) reveal that yes, everything is fine on the ship. Awesome!

After the events of the day, Hat kid wanted to lie down and sleep. But she knew she'd never be able to rest easy till she'd fixed every issue she could reasonably resolve. So off she went. The vault was an easy one; chains and a padlock to reinforce the locks on the vault's. The airlock? Now, the skips automatic bulkhead systems managed to seal the ship before anything worse happened, just as advertised. With those bulkheads being stronger than the initial airlock, Hat kid wasn't afraid of anymore trouble trying to invade her ship. Still, overconfidence had gotten her into this mess. So…. Hat kid took some of her spaceship quality wood and secured them into her bridge's window.

"There! That ought to do it." Hat kid puffed, wiping the sweat off her forehead. Now the spaceship was truly secure and she can now rest easy.

Jotting down on a notepad recounting the day's events, since she couldn't access her diary again yet, Hat kid stripped off her sweaty pyjamas and left them hanging to dry.

Normally, she'd put on a fresh pair, but she was locked out of the bedroom for the time being and sleeping in sweaty pajamas was out of the question for her. Hence, Hat kid opted to engage her ship's active camouflage and sleep in her current state of undress, curled up in the captain's chair, wrapped in pillows to avoid disturbing her dear rumba, Rumbi. Once she was comfortable in her makeshift bed, it did not take long for the toil of the day's events to catch up to Hat kid and for the girl to drift off to sleep.

* * *

Author's notes: Greetings ladies and gentlemen, thanks for reading through this chapter. Now, people might be wondering about the status of _Dreemurr in Need._ I assure you that it's not cancelled. I'm just not feeling up to it at the moment. I'll update both whenever i can and I'll do my best to make sure you're entertained all the way through, no dropping of standards. Also, since this is a _Hat in Time_ story with mods integrated as best as i can, to the story, this section would also be dedicated to being a mod spotlight. For this chapter, the mod debuting is the pajamas mod by Jawchewa on steam. Loved running around in this costume for its cuteness and for the fact that you could imagine Hat kid being lazy to change out of it… or being

forced to wear it due to her being locked out of her room till she got 7 timepieces like is the case here. Mentioned, but not used yet, is the ribbon "hat" by Camb0t on steam! As noted, it is a sort of sprint hat, only, it leaves you without a hat, but you gain a ribbon hair tie in it's place. Perfect for those who want to see her hatless more often!

That's all for the mods showcase this chapter! Stay tuned for more Hat Kid business! BLKey… out.


	2. Chapter 2: Meeting a New Friend

**Homeward Bound Chapter 2: Meeting a New friend**

* * *

A full eight hours had elapsed since Hat kid went to sleep. Despite the lack of a proper bed, or her own state of undress, ie sleeping in just her undergarments, Hat kid had managed to sleep soundly.

Not long after, the radio/alarm clock sounded off again, signalling a brand new day, a brand new adventure. Having set her navigation computer to detect the timepieces, Hat kid set off to make breakfast. Having looked at the fridge, Hat Kid could not help but groan a little. She'd pack enough for her trip to retrieve _that item_ and return back home again, plus some extras for emergency purposes, not including snacks. But at the rates she was going, the food supplies that she had brought along would run dry by the time she was barely more than a tenth of the way in retrieving her precious timepieces/fuel. _Brilliant_.

Still, she had to eat a proper breakfast, else she wouldn't have the energy to retrieve the timepieces. So she retrieved her desired breakfast, (pancakes (with maple syrup)), and set it in the toaster oven, wrapped with aluminium foil and all to be heated up. Once it was done, she took out her tableware, maple syrup and milk, proceeding then to have her breakfast. Sure, it felt odd for Hat kid to do all of her morning routines in just undergarments, but whatever it took to keep her pyjamas from being stained, amiright? Having cleared off her morning routines, Hat kid went back to her nav. computer.

During that time frame, the Computer had picked up five timepieces total in the area. One of those pieces was out in the main Mafia town area. The other four? Gathered inside or converging on the place the talk of the town called the Mafia HQ. IE a should be well guarded, not to mention, certainly dangerous place for Hat kid to venture into. So the isolated timepiece it is.

Having taken note of the time piece's location, (near the fountain plaza itself, So she didn't need to change much for teleportation settings, That's nice.), Hat kid now turned her attention to the contents of her pockets. (They're bigger on the inside.) Amongst them, she found, to her delight that she had enough to stitch the brewing (explosives) hat of her vision. So having now officially placed the rest of the non handkerchief, wallet & teleportation device remote into her bag, (which is also bigger on the inside, as most video game characters' bags in role-playing games were,) Hat kid proceeded with knitting together that hat. It didn't take long before she had the finished product added to her hat compartment. Taking a moment to tie up her hair with the ribbon & putting on her newest hair band, purple with a pair of teardrops attached to the side, hat kid double checked that the isolated timepiece hadn't move, the girl now headed to the teleporter and engaged the teleport.

After climbing up to the top of the left wall of the location she'd teleported to, a trash dump separated by a wire mesh wall opposite the fountain plaza, she found that the fountain was the same as she'd left it. Hat Kid wasn't surprised. Afterall, it was only a day since she'd retrieved that time piece. Clearing away from the smell of the trash, Hat Kid took a deep breath to recollect herself. She'd have to endure a lot of trainings prior to venturing off planet and taking on the quest for the items needed for her rite of passage, just like every other child on her home planet.

Besides the usual academics that a child had to go through, each child had some special training that was unique to which clan they belonged to. Her clan, clan _Frihed_ , (Danish for "freedom",) were friends of the water dragons of Avalion (a lot of planets have an Avalion) and sent the young of the clan to train with them alongside their caretakers. During the training, she'd build up the physical endurance required, learn the gymnastics skills needed before going on to learning the skills of the water dragons; the dragon cyclone (360 degrees attack at the cost of range of the actual attack, since she's attacking without any actual weapons, also great for covering a good amount of distance), & the dragon boost (a high speed tackle, essentially) skills being part of that skill set. At the end of it, they were given two dragon scales to forge into something personal as a memento to that special clan training, as well as a "hard drive" from which to re-imprint the know how to activate the dragon skills that they've learnt. Her's was that headpiece, souvenir in particular, of sweat and tears shed in trying to impress a particularly distant father… It hadn't work out. She'd confront her father about that, but got an excuse about being busy at work for that, never mind that that ceremony was on a Friday night just for the parents to be able to attend it. He'd promise to attend the rite of passage though. So that's something to look forward to! With that in mind, Hat Kid set off to find that stray timepiece.

* * *

The process in trying to get to the timepiece was… slow, to say the least. It didn't help matters any that this time, there was no hearsay around the town to lead Hat kid to said piece. Maybe they were deliberately trying to get her off their island, or maybe they genuinely haven't seen it around. Point is, there was no help to be given to the little girl in the Top Hat. Undeterred, Hat Kid continued wandering around the town. During the process, Hat Kid couldn't help but notice the overall lack of true security in town, heck, the world in general. Items just lying around, ripe for the takings. From the common items like yarn balls, to even the so called "valuable" relics that, as she would later be claimed to, would make her rich, and outright money. All those, exposed for all to take. Sure, there were the mafia goons, who are just tough enough to withstand an assault till reinforcements came, if they could be bothered to arrive... On the other hand, some of the items were lying around in odd enough places to weird out any potential thieves from getting them anyway. For instance, on that particular trip of the day, she saw a ball of sprint yarn floating in midair. Another yarn was just lying on top of an air balloon! Well, she wouldn't complain too much, since it just simply made it easier for her in her mission to get back home.

After getting a camera for free, kind of, since she still needed to belly dive over to and then climb up a rock formation to a seagull nest in order to retrieve said camera, only to find out the owner of said camera had a lot of reserves and was just looking for an excuse to yell at seagulls. As Hat kid was walking by a fair that had a pile of TNT barrels lying in the middle for some reason, when she heard a yell;

"Dude, get off me!"

It came from the fair. When Hat Kid moved in to investigate, she found, to her horror, that the mafia goons had taken a red hooded girl with… a mustache? Where did she get that?, hostage. One goon holding the mustached girl, three others just dancing around.

Hat Kid rolled her eyes. "For a bunch of so-called mafia members, they all seem to be weirdos when not being threatening…" Taking a moment to swap to her brewing hat, Hat Kid moved in closer.

Just then, one of said goons sensed her presence.

"Hey! Child! Shoo! Mafia can't have child witness when Mafia teaching lesson." The mafia goon told her.

Aren't you teaching a lesson to a child? Hat kid asked to herself, keeping her face straight.

Minutes went by, neither goon nor kid giving ground. To break the stalemate, Hat kid proceeded to stick her tongue out. That got a response & a look of shock at the blatant act of defiance, not to mention causing the goon to blush.

"Nani?"

"This awkward for Mafia." the mafia goon said, scratching his head.. "Mafia not sure what to do."

The mafia goon now turned to the goon at the top of the TNT 'fort';

"Hey, Boss! What shall we do with eyewitness?"

"Teach her a lesson, Boys!" The leader told them.

With that, the battle began. The first part was just like any other time she decided to fight any of the goons; the goons who descended to deal with her being little more than just the average goons she had dealt with before. After the last of those goons bit the dust, ie exploded into pons, the leader now declared: "Enough! Mafia won't bow to little girl! Prepare to feel Mafia's wrath!" With that, he threw the mustached girl into a wall, knocking her unconscious. He then proceeded to rig spikes onto the barrels before pelting Hat Kid with them. First aiming directly at the girl. Later, once it was clear that was not going to work, the goon, demonstrating a greater smartness than the average henchman now aimed in a way to ensure the barrels bounced around the arena before exploding. It certainly worked out fine for the goon, with some barrels succeeding in drawing blood. Hat Kid started panting. Any more, and she would have been done for. Fortunately for her, the goon decided that he wasn't getting anywhere with his current tactic and had decided he needs to settle it in 'mafia style', ie beat her up personally. With careful dodging of the goon's easily telegraphed attacks, wacking at the goon with her umbrella and pelting him with explosives, Hat kid defeated the goon. Though she hadn't plan it it that way, the blow that defeated the goon and sent him blasting off was a tube of the explosive purple chemical.

As though it sensed that it was safe, the timepiece that Hat kid was looking for this whole time emerged from the pile of TNT barrels. Glad that this venture was not in vain, Hat kid happily grabbed the timepiece and twirled, holding the timepiece aloft.

"It felt as good as it did the first time," Hat Kid thought to herself. "I shall keep doing this for every timepiece I collect. Right, back to the ship I go then…"

"Prfff. Can you believe them? What a bunch of losers." a voice behind her said.

Hat kid turned around. It was the girl the mafia goon slammed at the wall. She looked bruised from that attack, but otherwise, looked fine enough to her.

"Hey. You're alright, new kid? You were bleeding just now, you know." the mustached girl asked her, concerned.

Hat Kid nodded. She'd been through worst. That was simply just a bad day for her.

"Oh, that's good." the girl said, relieved. "Do you have a name?"

Hat Kid hesitated. Is it really ok for her to give her real name to this mustached girl whom she'd only just met? Or would her alias satisfy the other girl for now?

Fortunately, the girl took the moment of silence as shyness, labelling her, correctly, as a less talking, more fighting kind of girl. The girl now turned her attention to the timepiece.

"That thing you have there... are you collecting them? Because I know where there's more of them."

She then turned her eyes towards the view of the Mafia HQ.

"They've been raining from the sky ever since you arrived. I've seen the goons bring them to their headquarters waay up there," now indicating the headquarters.

Now back to facing Hat Kid herself, the mustached girl now had a face of excitement. "We should get up there and get your junk! I'll take any opportunity that involves messing up the Mafia. You with me, buddy?", offering a hand for a hi-five. Glad for a buddy in this new world, Hat Kid accepted. Taking a moment just to brace her new buddy about any teleportation sickness, Hat kid stored the timepiece in her pocket, grabbed the buddy's hand and engaged the teleport.

* * *

As soon as the two girls step out of the teleportation pad, they were greeted by an intruder alert alarm.

"I'm sorry!" Hat kid cried out as she ran to the control panel and silenced the alarm, taking time out to add mustache girl to the list of guests.

"Now, first order of business; time to patch you up! Do you require help with that, buddy?" queried Mustache Girl.

After indicating that she doesn't mind the assistance, Hat kid ate some health pons, took off her pyjamas top and allowed Mustache girl to inspect her back for damage while she dealt with the wounds in front.

The entire process didn't take long to finish and the damage done, while enough to draw blood, wasn't too serious.

With a promise to not over-strain herself and to rest afterwards, She'll call once she was herself ready, Mustache girl let Hat kid patch up her own clothes while she drew up her action plan.

Once both girls were satisfied with their care, They both headed down to Hat kid's briefing room. Over the next couple of minutes, Hat kid's opinion of Mustache girl turned from impressed at her determination to outright horror at the lengths that she would go to deal with the mafia. Despite that, Hat kid was willing to put it aside if it allowed her to achieve her goals. "whatever was enough to get her back home… right?"

During that time, Mustache girl had gone on to talk about yarn, how it could be used to stitch hats that grant her different abilities, how they require different amounts of yarn to stitch. Stuff that was basically a refresher for her. Slightly unhinged or otherwise, Hat kid was glad to have an ally around for her stay. Plus she also got an additional yarn ball from the talk, so that's a plus!

"Now you're a killing machine! Let's get them!" Mustache Girl told her eagerly.

Hat kid's stomach took this moment to grumble.

"Are you hungry, rebel squad?" mustache girl asked her. Hat kid's face flushed a bright pink at this, and the only words she managed to utter out was a soft "I'm sorry."

"It's alright, buddy. Stay here," she told Hat kid, as the girl rose to join her. "I'll take care of this."

Having pointed Moustache girl to the ship's kitchen, Hat kid went off to chronicle the day's events in her notebook. She tried, oh yes, she tried. But all she could think of to note as the day's events was the bizarreness that was the barrel battle. So that's what she placed as the day's entry, with a note of apologies to her future self.

Even with the time spent pondering then writing the day's entry, Mustache Girl wasn't done yet. Worried for the buddy, but wishing to trust that her new friend had everything under control, Hat Kid opted to take a short nap.

Soon, Mustache girl had finished cooking the lunch. One look at the meal prepared convinced Hat Kid to eat first bite convinced her that she was validated in her choice to trust in Mustache Girl's cooking.. Over the meal, the two engaged in idle talk. From there, Hat Kid learnt of the reason why Mustache Girl could cook in the first place; namely, the mafia of the cooks really suck at the cooks part of their name, ("and upped the mafia part to compensate," Hat Kid reckoned.) Thus, Mustache Girl couldn't steal those, oh no. She had to learn how to cook a proper meal just to survive. From there on, they went on to different topics before the inevitable talk about the state of Hat Kid's food supplies came up.

Since they might be in for the long haul waiting for any possible stray time pieces to the HQ, grab that, and should they have the time to do so, raid the storage for all the time pieces they know are inside and get back out again, Mustache Girl offered to grab enough food supplies for the ship, since she knew the town better than Hat Kid herself. In the meantime, Hat kid would continue sourcing around for any equipment she could use to her advantage, taking note of any means of actually reaching the mafia headquarters.

With a plan in mind for the rest of the day, the two parted ways via teleporter, Hat Kid handing Mustache Girl a remote control for the teleporter so she could return to the ship as soon as possible to store the newly acquired supplies. With a check to find an appropriate teleportation destination, Hat Kid sent Mustache Girl on her way. As for Hat Kid herself, after some consideration and a moment to dress up, she set her own destination to the fountain plaza.

"Alright, Showtime!" Hat kid told herself, engaging the teleport.

* * *

Author's notes: Greetings, ladies and gentlemen. I hope that the chapter ended nicely enough for you. As for why it ended the way it did, I was hoping to make each act it's own (Fanfic) chapter, filling it as nicely and appropriately as possible so that it would make up a convincing in-game day, (according to Hat Kid's Diary.)

In case anyone's wondering how I write the content for the chapters, I like to record a fresh play-through each act, ending the recording session around the time the act is finished and the timepiece is collected. (The recording program used is actually the windows 10 game bar's record function. It's great for recording anything that just uses the programme you start up the game bar and don't need the viewers to see the mouse for. Otherwise, you'll need a different screen recorder.) Then, I use Premiere Pro to edit together the raw footage, piecing together the story for the act, while also grabbing any interesting events that took place on the way to the goal. One could call the story a compilation of interesting moments in my Hat Kid journey as well. Then I render out a video and use that as a basis from which I make some notes of the points I wish to cover, then I type out the final story chapter in google Docs. Along the way, I also type in moments that I remember happened on my own actual first play-through of Hatty Time, since this was supposed to be Hat Kid's first journey through the planet after all.

Also, shout-outs to The Super Gaming Brothers (& Sister), the collective minds who spawned the _Nani!_ moment prior to the Barrel Battle, & especially SomecallmeJohnny ( Somecallmejon on twitter), for the mod filled play through that ultimately convinced me to buy A Hat in Time in the first place, after that initial Hat in Time review & the BETA version Spotlight video that drew my attention to the game. Love your editing, Sabrina ( zeldalinklover1 on Twitter)! They made the entire let's play a fun time for me. Also a shout-out to Deviantart handle **Natalya-Chan** , from whose mind spawned the Mustache Girl knows how to cook scene. Hope you all don't mind those moments...

Mod(s) that debuted here: _**Lilac's headpiece**_ \- one of the officially made mods for the game. Functions the same way it's original counterpart does. Perform Lilac's cyclone maneuver and sequence break to your heart's content at the cost of no homing attacks!

* * *

 **Guest review answers:**

 **GaoGod:** the first reference made was to Spirited Away. Yep the Miyazaki film.

 **ConArtist Croc & Guest (no. 1): **Hi, good sir/madam, thanks!

For **Guest (no. 1)** only: Thanks for voicing your support. I wanted to add them mods because it seemed like no one really included them into their stories yet, this game or otherwise, at the time of me writing the story. (Imagigamegirl, as of late, included the pyjamas mod in her Hat in Time story, _Finding Home.)_


	3. Chapter 3: Invasion (Part 1)

**Homeward Bound chapter 3: Invasion (Part 1)**

* * *

The plaza was once again, as Hat kid left it. In fact, barring the changes that were from the flow of time & that the mafia goons were the typical thugs of the beat them to submission type, Hat kid would have seriously questioned how the mafia could have stayed in power for so long (that they couldn't remember a time before the Island town became Mafia Town) in the first place. 

Hat Kid went about her search as methodically as she could, clearing self marked section by section, picking up whatever she deemed to be valuable in the process, such as a token for the roulette of the rifts in her spaceship, from a green safe that she saw on the way to the Mafia Town Beach. 

It was through that method that she came to be aware that something was suspicious with what she would be claimed to, to be a relic of the planet. The piece that would form part of a 'relic', for one, while it was the bottom half of a beef burger, (she smelt and tried it once she deemed it safe enough to do so, tasted like and was in fact, plastic.), was stuffed inside a treasure chest that was close to a section of the island's cannon defense (but never mind _that_.), could be mafia boneheadedness, so Hat Kid was willing to write that off. What did set off her alarm bells, however, was that she could sense some residue Time energy emitting from the item, something that her equipment on the spaceship double confirmed for her. "Definitely something worth looking into," Hat kid thought, intrigued. "Plus, it does look like it'll look nice on the spaceship, so that's a major plus!" Hat kid told herself happily. 

The second time she came across a piece that made up a relic of the planet while in Mafia town passed on by without much incident; It was just beside a shop, the content inside was a bunch of train tracks circling a mountain. Could have been part of a souvenir or something, but Hat Kid was more focused on the energy it emitted. The time energy she felt from it was overall the same as it usually was. Something did feel slightly different though. Like it was part of a different fragment. A fragment that would form a Time rift, most likely. Multiple time rifts even. "Welp. Just calm yourself," Hat kid told herself. "You're here to collect the timepieces. There are no time rifts around yet, no danger of that sort. Just tackle them as they come, Girl." With that she carried on. 

Along the way, she came across the hot air balloon with the yarn on top again, alone and proud as it had before. It certainly felt aloof, being one of the only ones with the weird parody of Mustache Girl's (Mu's) actual mugshot on a mafia head. a fitting description of Mustache Girl's previous situation till she came along. With that in mind, was there a better companion to give what she'll eventually discover to be a ball of yarn that was to be part of an ice cap, ***ahem*** , an ice themed hat? 

For one, it couldn't take just a dragon cyclone maneuver based stunt to impress said ball of yarn to come with her. Oh no. Our ice boi needs a dragon cyclone maneuver that transitions immediately to a wall run, jump and double jump back onto the top of that hot air balloon. So that's what Hat kid tried to do. Emphasis on _tried_. Oh, she tried. Ooh yes she tried. Every attempt that way ended with a dip in the harbour, not once did she succeed in having her feet on top of that balloon. 

After the fifth failed attempt, Hat kid decided to make a different attempt. Making her way back to the house from which she would attempt to get over to the top of that hot air balloon, Hat kid decided to bring out FLUDD. Or at least her replication of it. 

She remembered the day that she would meet up with the original. She had visited Delfino plaza itself the day that the shadow clone showed up to wreck havoc (again.) Heard the cry of vandalism, given chase. Used her athletic skills to catch up to the clone and grab him. Sure, the clone managed to break free eventually, but that gave Mario the time to catch up and soak down the imposter. That continued til the clone decided to beat a hasty retreat. 

They bonded well after this, of course. Even taking on one of the island's obstacle courses in exchange for gaining a "shine sprite," both impressed by the other's athleticism contrary to their respective physical appearances. 

Over a meal, the duo talk about their reasons for being in Delfino plaza in the first place; Hat kid mentioning of her planet's tradition of sending their children to see the universe, to appreciate it and the natural order of things so as to fulfil their duty of keeping time in check and all. Not to mention her own birth month being in a timing to fulfil that academic part as well as her clan's rite of passage. 

This prompted Mario to attempt to pass FLUDD over to Hat Kid, claiming that as a child, by all records, she would need the assistance far more than he did. Hat kid refused the offer, of course, stating that FLUDD was needed here. To deal with the ink problem. But she did accept the compromise to look it over and get a rough readout of it so she could reverse engineer one, should she need it. In addition, Mario also gave her the promise of a connection to the inventor, in case she needed to upgrade her replica to deal with supernatural threats… 

Hat kid smiled at the memory. In the time that had elapsed since she parted ways with the plumber, Hat kid had succeeded in reverse engineering FLUDD. Using whatever stops she could manage to get in as an excuse to test out the device in a field test. She might have the body of a 6-7 year old, but her mind was already in its 11s, able to write coherently enough to get her messages across whenever she didn't feel like vocalising them. Though it admittedly was exasperating whenever she encountered an adult, who would insist that she wasn't ready for it, despite the girl having proved them wrong multiple times on occasion. Hat kid couldn't help but admit it was fun proving the adults wrong every single time that happened, then, during playtime, reverting back to the child she was supposed to be almost effortlessly. It drove them nuts. 

Yet at the same time, she could admit she was eager to get the rite of initiation out of the way so she could begin the next phase of training to be a proper guardian of time, and more importantly, gain the recognition of her father… 

Hat kid shook her head, aware that she was getting lost in her thoughts again. Her focus was to be on her mission of get back home with those timepieces in hand. Her times of introspection, rejuvenation & later on in her life, full on regeneration? The spaceship's Personal chambers and her own diary in the pillow fort were built for those. 

With that, Hat kid now went over her plans. Simply jumping over and belly diving, jump cancel and dragon cycloning over was too complex, not to mention the risk of undershooting once gravity itself kicked in. So, she'll just replace the cyclone maneuver with a burst of water jetting hovering with FLUDD to reach the yarn ought to do the trick. And so, that's what Hat Kid did. The process passing by quite effortlessly that Hat Kid wondered why she didn't just bust out FLUDD sooner. It also helped that Hat Kid is quite the mechanical genius, able to make some improvements to FLUDD. Now, the model she had, while it can run out of water, could instantly replenish water the instant the user touches the ground. For another, it was now able to transform to any of it's four modes with the simple touch of a button. No more dropping in the parts needed somehow while wandering about! 

As for the ice yarn itself, when Hat Kid was inspecting it for ideas on how she should make use of it when stitching together something fitting that theme, found that the ball of yarn had material resembling an ice crystal and had a neck for being ice cold, yet having the ability to stretch out an area of warmth as far as the user desires. AKA, perfect for any weather, especially winter, with the bonus of being able to call out an armour of ice around her to make her virtually invulnerable while still remain warm enough that once she's broken out of it, she's not disoriented and can attack almost right away. Hence, Hat Kid found it fitting to make it a beanie with cute bear ears, once she had… eight balls of yarn would be enough. 

The third time she came across a relic piece was far more interesting. Hat kid was on her way to her own crash site on this world, one of her landmarks to teleport to, when she felt the presence of time energy. Not as strong as the timepieces, which was how she even knew she stumbled on a relic instead of the timepiece in the first place. 

Curious, she jumped onto a blue rooftop nearby to take a look. No sign of it. Seems like she'll have to go close to the other edge of that building if she's going to have any hope of finding that relic. Standing beside a mafia goon who was content to sit down on that same roof, Hat kid found that the relic, maybe because of the time energy remnant, maybe just some planet shenanigans, was floating underneath a mafia banner, gift box and all, with seawater to serve as a cushion once she inevitably fell. Perfect for a nice little stunt with the _dragon cyclone_ maneuver. 

"Hmm. Even though that that relic piece should not have moved, seems that if they weren't before, the relics & the yarn balls of Mafia town were trying to one-up one another in terms of epic ways of acquiring them, huh? Never mind that they were, by all accounts, _**not sentient in any shape or form.**_ " Hat Kid thought to herself. 

Having put on the ribbon and her dragon scale headband, (Lilac, (a gift from Zeniba, sister of Yubaba, owner of the spirits bathhouse in Spirited Away. It would protect her with the power and blessings of the spirits of that world, granting her the ability of the sprint hat as well.) and making sure that her path was clear, (prior to that, she accidentally nudged against the goon sitting on the edge of that rooftop. Something was clearly wrong, if that was all it took for the goon to fall to the floor below… whatever.) Hat kid gathered a running start, jumped, dived and once she felt she was at the right height for it, initiated the _dragon cyclone_ manoeuvre. "Cyclone!" Hat kid called out. The speed and spin from from that move, alongside the purple psychic waves, carried her forward and with gravity kicking in, brought her in an arc that yet right into a position to grab the floating gift box. Hat Kid eagerly opened it. 

Inside was a toy steam train set, carriages and all. Kinda odd for one to see this far from a place with children..., but the goons were jerks after all, evicting people unjustly, so not so out-of-place for it. Having stored the 'relic' away, gift box and all, Hat kid suddenly remembered that she was floating in mid-air. A flail about later, plus the classic 'this-is-gonna-suck' look later, Hat kid fell into the harbour water, screaming for part of the way down. 

Normally, she would be more bitter about landing in the water, but since it was a hot day, Hat kid didn't mind the dip. Welcomed it in fact, minus the sea water. A swim later and a squeeze later once she was back on dry land, Hat kid took a moment to make sure her precious equipment was fine. Sure, they were certified as waterproof, but it never hurts to double check. Once she was satisfied with their condition, alongside her other equipment, Hat kid went on her way, happy that the recent relic piece felt like it connected to the previous one collected, a puzzle now closer to completion. (Shoutouts to _**Somecallmejohnny**_ for getting that relic (in general) the same way first. It's definitely one of _the_ inspiring feats that inspired me to get the game.) 

With those bits dealt with, Hat kid continued wandering a bit, collecting whatever she could, including purchasing a pon magnet badge (item magnet badge) from a Badge Seller, till it was evening - the time she returned home, in this case the spaceship, for dinner. 

Over dinner that night, (Once again cooked by Mustache Girl), Hat Kid and Mu discussed about what they had seen around. One of the things that came up was that Mustache Girl had a wanted poster around. That led to the reveal that Mu was one of the remaining descendants of the original islanders of the island. Her family was kicked off the island when she was about 6… But for some reason, she was left behind. And she's been resisting the mafia ever since.

After the meal, as the two girls were finishing their clean up on the dishes, Hat Kid's navigation computer issued an alert. It turned out that one of the timepieces had been moved out of the mafia Headquarters for some reason. Whatever that was, it still stood that the opportunity to grab the timepiece without too much trouble was there. Hat Kid took a look at the local weather reports in the area; the skies were perspiring. So it's time to whip out the raincoat from her bag. Wrapping out her share of the clean up, Hat kid now set up the teleporter to drop her off at the harbour. And so, with a goodbye to Mu and a final check that everything was in order, Hat Kid pressed the teleport button.

* * *

 **While all that was happening:**

Dr Mafiaso had been tense ever since the spaceship showed up within view of Mafia Town. He had a fear of aliens, ever since he was young. And when the ship came into view, that fear of aliens was brought out front centre. He had sent a mafia goon up there to investigate, of course, but all that got was the goon crashing into the alley, out cold, even now. Then came the timepieces, with one messing up the town's fountain. A hallmark of a step towards an all-out invasion. The paranomanic in him had started ranting about the incoming invasion, but the mafia goons had mostly ignored him, with some goons only giving him sympathy pats at most. The rain was the breaking point for him. Thus he went off to grab a timepiece. That ought to ward off aliens. Hopefully. 

Oh boy would he be proven wrong with the one he's dealing with.

* * *

The rain proved thicker than Hat Kid expected as she landed at the mafia town harbour. But she didn't mind. The weather felt cool, but she still wanted a little more warmth, so Hat Kid took out her new ice beanie. Feeling the new sense of warmth flowing through her, Hat Kid proceeded on to her goal, taking some time to let the rain occasionally fall on her face. It proved great. On the path to the goal, she discovered that she could make use of the ice panels that she saw lying about by making use of the beanie's ability to control and form an ice armour around herself. First was a panel on top of a storage area at the harbour. For that, she broke through and earned the ice yarn that the mafia goon had been wondering about for her trouble. 

Continuing on, Hat kid started discovering that the planet's inhabitants are just weird. Even though it was raining, the people were still going about their merry businesses. The tourist that she saw earlier, it turned out that he had a thing for the moon. Sure, he loved mafia Town and its attraction, but nothing beats going to the moon, apparently. 

Later, she found out that the panel on top of the harbour storeroom wasn't how the typical ice panel was to be used. The next ice panel that she found was a springboard to a spot where the timepiece was at, so that's nice. Taking a moment to grab a previously unreachable (for her), brewing hat yarn, she carried on to the goal. There, she saw Dr Mafiaso, near the town's observatory, (or at least it looks like an observatory. It has the distinctive shape of one, plus the decorations that looks like it'll go well with one, Hat Kid thought.) cowering for some reason. When she went to talk to him, all she got from him was a talk about a spaceship and how muddy gloop monsters would be invading any minute now. Doesn't sound like he'll be moving any time soon. Not for anybody or any how. A good thing for her, and a shame for anyone concerned for the guy's health. 

Leaving him for a moment, Hat Kid decided to explore ahead, noting the cannon nearby, then the storage area in the skies, which would be the subject of her exploration. Dropping a message to Mu, Hat kid went on. While trying to go on higher up the storage area, she misjudged a jump, fell out and off the zone entirely, plus the height she fell, managed to injure herself. 

"Ow!" As it turned out, that misfortune was a (small) blessing in disguise. On the way back up to the observatory area, she found a treasure chest containing a relic piece. A model of a stereotypical spaceship to be precise. Of course, like every relic piece she'd find, there was residue time energy, of a different fragment compared with the ones she'd picked up before. "Just how many time rifts of that nature were there to be found?" Hat Kid could not help but question. 

There was no answer to be heard. Nor that Hat kid expected someone to answer. Putting the toy ufo inside her bag, Hat kid made her way back to the conservatory. Getting back was easy. Getting back there _without tripping on mud_ though was harder. 

"Geeze, seems like the universe is against the guy or something. There's mud everywhere!" 

Now heading to the temporary storage area proper, Hat Kid proceeded to explore the place, taking note of the pipe sections she could use as a makeshift bunch of steps, along with many makeshift platforms in the area, in a path leading to the skies of Mafia town. She climbed up to the end of said path, only to find that the object that she swore she saw was there during the day was gone, presumably taking refuge from the rain. The only one with common sense in town, and it's a _coin_. Before climbing down, Hat Kid could not help but take in the view. With the rain pouring down on town, at night and the lights on because of that, the sight was beautiful, just like the tourist guy said. She would have stayed up there for a while longer, but she had a timepiece to retrieve.

* * *

Back down to the observatory. Dr Mafiaso was _still there_. Seems like that cannon was important… And that nothing would shift him from his spot. Unless she took the mafiaso at his word and came up to him covered with mud… She went over to one of the puddles of mud around the observatory. Now, how would she go about doing this? Just then, one of Hat Kid's feet slipped and she fell into the mud, face first. Getting up, she found that she couldn't see. Taking a moment to clear the mud from her eyes, Hat Kid now hopped clear of the hazard that was that mud puddle.

Something from that drew Dr Mafiaso's attention. 

"What the… HUH?! It's… It's slimy space alien!" Dr Mafiaso's mouth now went into rotor mouth. "Mafia saw spaceship! Mafia knew all along! Mafia is being invaded by aliens! AAHHHHHH!" 

It came. The scene from his childhood nightmare came. Raining, plus a thunderstorm. Just like in the nightmare. Before him was the slimy alien. It looked like a young girl covered in mud playing a game, but the glowing purple-ish/red eyes told him better. He stood his ground, hoping the glowing hourglass that he brought out in hopes of repelling demons simply needed some time to register with the creature and repel it. But no, it failed in it's task. In fact, the alien seemed fascinated by it. Just then, thunder clapped, shattering the last of his courage to pieces. 

With a girly scream, Dr Mafiaso fell on his bum, bursting some pons free from his person. A quick glance saw the safe way out to be the temporary storage site. So he ran and jumped over there. That ought to surfice. Mafia saw lots of science fiction movies. Slimy aliens don't like being far from home. Mafia safe over here… _right_? 

Hat kid saw his reaction, and could hardly contain her glee. She knew that the mafia goons were odd folks, but this goon with the funny specs and the decorations that might possibly mark him as a leader or something in their ranks took the cake. And he noticed! He saw her fixation on the timepiece! If she kept that up, hopefully that goon would willingly relinquish the timepiece. Not all of them, probably, but even that was a start. With that goal in mind, Hat kid jumped over to where Dr Mafiaso was. 

With some difficulty due to the need to keep mud from reading her eyes while maintaining sight of the goon, Hat kid jumped and dived clean across the gap surrounding her and Dr Mafiaso. But distracted with the mud possibly reaching her eyes, she underestimated the distance she needed to leap back up from and bumped into the good doc himself. 

Thunder for some reason decided to strike then, forcing Dr Mafiaso to jump around, right into a position to stare at Hat Kid. Recoiling, Dr Mafiaso fell again, spiling pons over again. 

"It came over!" Dr Mafiaso thought to himself frantically. "I thought they couldn't jump. Where to go to now? There! Up There! They can jump, but shouldn't be of the advanced type of aliens that are of the athletic, acrobatic kinds right? Please don't be those types…" 

He said, now racing for the stack of boxes that were his lifeline and climbed up there as quickly as his limbs could take him. Once up there, he'll wipe the stuff clean off. There's no way alien be turning him into one of them! 

Hat kid was impressed. She'd never have thought a mafia goon could be athletic enough to climb up a wall to evade her. Too bad she scotted the area before this and knew she could get up there. So get up there she did. With a dive over to his position and thunder to announce her presence, Hat kid flipped back up, with the doctor reacting accordingly. 

That had been fun, but even Hat kid was feeling that it was time to wrap things up. Fortunately, the path the goon was taking, was reaching the end. The goon only ran a short way forward before stopping close to the edge of a mafia banner being held by a balloon. She caught up, thunder boomed, Mafia screamed and the pons fell. 

Seemingly summoning strength from adrenaline, Dr Mafiaso now ran and flutter jumped over. Then, in a show of strength that she'd never truly thought possible from the mafia of the cook goons at least, jumped high enough to reach the upper platform. Impressive. But after what she just did, did he really think that would stop her? Nope! 

One wallrun and rebound to reach said upper platform revealed that Dr Mafiaso hadn't stopped just yet. Oh no. He was running for dear life, flutter jumping as needed to reach where that item would have been at, the timepiece he had illuminating him the whole way through. 

"That's cute, but looks like the chase has reached endgame for him," Hat kid told herself. 

Effortlessly jumping across platforms to reach him, Hat Kid was surprised to see him face her, like he was ready for his end. But Hat kid wasn't there to kill him. She just wanted the timepiece, no fusses given and head back home. Nonetheless, Hat kid could admit being disappointed that Dr Mafiaso was down on his knees at the sight of her, praying to… someone. 

*huff… huff….* 

"Leave Mafia alone, You Monster!" 

If she was any easily offended adult from her world, she suspected she would just wack him right there. As it was, she was close to reaching her limit as well. 

"Here, If mafia give you this, Will you go away?" Dr Mafiaso asked, pleading, releasing the timepiece before he even got an answer. 

Taking time to observe the guy, Hat kid simply could not help but be amused that Dr Mafiaso continued his begging for mercy. She could stay and watch this for a while, of course. But she had a timepiece to retrieve. However, there was a problem, after so long, the mud was draining from her, practically blinding her. Moving to retrieve the hourglass, she bumped into the still pleading dr Mafiaso twice before successful grabbing the timepiece. Twirling in the air in victory, Hat Kid allowed the rain to wash off most of the mud before projecting her will, allowing the timepiece to teleport her back to the spaceship. 

"*Huff…, huff…,* Mafia needs to tell boss what happened."

* * *

 _ **Over at Mafia headquarters…**_

"Boss! We have a problem…"

* * *

 **Hat Kid's spaceship**

"Phew! That felt good!" Hat kid told herself. "But aww, now her precious pyjamas was stinky after so long. Still, she got the time piece, so worth it!" allowing that precious memory spark up a satisfied grin. Three timepieces collected. One more and she could restore power to the engine room. Then, she could inspect it, as well as her gallery for damage! Two rooms for the price of one, (hopefully), twice the amount of good news to be received. 

Noting that she still had mud on her, Hat kid formed the ice casing around her then released from it. There! Good as cleaned for now. 

Stepping out of the teleport, she noted, with concern, that Mu was gone. The ship's alarms didn't go off, and everything else checked out, no signs of a struggle, or of a break-in, so where did she go? 

That's when she saw the note. Concerned, Hat kid ran over to it. A quick glance through revealed that Mustache girl, Mu, had descended to the area, to spy on how to ignite the fuse for the cannon, if needed. More importantly, she would spy for any timepieces that came by, with a promise that she'll alert Hat Kid if there was any updates, not to worry about her, ending with a good night. 

Worried, but not too much after reading that note multiple times, Hat kid left her handphone on sound mode, making sure that the phone was charging up comfortably as well. With a quick trip to the bathroom to do a light washing of the clothes that she wore during the trip thus far, as well as to freshen up for a comfortable sleep, (she only now had enough accommodated, plus the stinky pyjamas, to do the light wash guilt free, not enough for a machine wash,), then hang out said clothes to dry, she made a note of the evening's events. Once satisfied, Hat kid turned off the ship's lights, tucked into her captain's chair pillows and went to sleep.

* * *

 **Mafia headquarters**

"... and so that's what happened." Dr Mafiaso said. 

**Sillence.**

"Let me recap. This spaceship came to our skies, you sent one of our men to investigate your wild theories at the same time as their usual duty, that caused, some way or another, these hourglasses to fall in, damage our fountain plaza and someone to drop in and cause more harm and outright death to the men in addition to the damage dealt by the mustached menace that we have currently? and whom, according to eyewitnesses, are working together with the menace now? then, during this latest rainstorm, you lost one of our collected hourglasses to the nightmare that came from your head?" 

"I was scared out of my mind, boss!" 

**Silence.** Then, 

"I understand. Fear can make different people out of us. Especially fears that turned out to be real," the apparent boss said. "Anything else?" 

"Sir, now that i think about it, the slimy space alien i saw and the little girl who started causing trouble for us recently might be the same person. Eye witness descriptions of the new girl and what i saw of slimy space alien quite similar, minus what seems like mud... " 

"Uh huh…" 

"If slimy space alien and little girl really are one and the same, Mafia reckon you could lure her to you using hourglass. Slimy space alien really eying hourglass for some reason…" 

Hmm…, the boss said, his attention now at full. 

Just then, a mafia goon came in. 

"Boss! Mafia found crash site in Mafia Town. Hourglass inside. Mafia letting it cool down. Then we transport it straight to Mafia headquarters vault!" 

"No. When you bring it to hq, bring it straight to me at the theatre!", the Mafia boss declared. 

"Umm, boss?" 

"You heard me. _We have a visitor who's getting as pesky as that Mustached girl. If they're allies, and that visitor's eying the hourglasses, we'll lure them here. Then, we size them up first._ If they're still not dead, they'll have the honours of meeting their ends against the most powerful man they'll ever face!" 

***A Thunder clap came to punctuate that promise.***

The mafia goons present applauded, eager to see the end of trouble, and a return to the peace in their vacation town.

* * *

 **Author's notes:** I hope this one's a good enough chapter for you. Please do tell me if anything seems out of character. One could get so into things that one could stray off topic after all. 

Regarding part of the strings of text, it is my desire to weave a story of how Hat Kid came to possess the mod items that I'll give her. Along the way, I also want to add mod maps to the mix as well. The rational being the whole letters take them to a new world story that dr Mafiaso gave. (He's the same guy with the swirly glasses that we have to chase down for act 3 in-game. I simply gave the guy a name.) 

**Mods that debut here:**

FLUDD (4 Modes) by Camb0t. Attacker, speedrunner tool, sequencebreaker. I'd usually leave FLUDD as a last resort item. Much better that way, i find. 

Btw, Thanks for that mod suggestion, _**GaoGod**_! I've always had plans to add FLUDD inside. Had that plan ever since chapter 3, the second region i visited for my first Hatty Time journey and the second region she visits for the story as well. (Just a heads up.) 

As for Joker's costume, I can say for sure, it'll show up. Just not yet. 

For the other mods suggested, I'm not sure if and when i might add them in. Stay tuned for updates on that matter, everyone! 

_**CeleneTheAngel**_ , thanks for the follow and the fav! This story could be considered a glorified mod showcase, yes. I won't deny that. This story exists the way out way because i didn't find any other story that incorporate mods this way prior to my own. Maybe i just didn't look hard enough? Point is, i couldn't find any, thus i decided to write this one. With regards to the first question, the reference was to Spirited Away. Check out the final bits of that story, and thanks for your time reading through thus far! 

That's all for author's notes. New chapters to the story will arrive whenever i feel up to it, aka at an unfixed interval. Please understand that it always takes a while to craft up a good story, even for the best of us. We'll do our best, but sometimes nature says otherwise. If nothing else, till next time! BLKey… out.


	4. Chapter 4: Invasion (Part 2)

**Homeward Bound Chapter 4: invasion (part 2) - Operation (Mafia) Boss Eater**

Mu did not return during the night, or day for that matter. A quick check on the ship's logs revealed there wasn't any other records of the teleport being used other than her own for the past few hours as well.

So it seems that Mu was indeed camping at the mafia headquarters location for the day.

Making what would be their final preparations for the plan, Hat kid warped down to mafia town.

Either the mud spots were synonymous with the rain, or despite all appearances to the contrary, the goons were expert cleaners; what with the town being clean of all traces of the mud from yesterday night. Every last known spot of them. Even the laziest of goons were clean of mud! Like there wasn't any mud around in the first place… weird.

Glad to be able to walk around without too much fear of tripping, Hat kid went about her usual hunt for items, keeping a special eye out for Mustache girl now. No sign of her. Not even a hint of her presence beyond the usual graffiti trademarks of her presence. Maybe she went inside the headquarters without telling her? Nah, can't be. Mu's eager to get back at the mafia, sure. But even she wouldn't rush in without a plan, she said so herself. Proved that with her cooking too, at that. She'll call. Someday.

Lunch time came and Hat kid went back to the spaceship for lunch. No Mustache girl to greet her, or surprise her, for that matter.

"Guess she was serious about that huh? I'll give it a week, then. If there's no reply, I'll come down to the headquarters area to investigate," Hat Kid told herself. With that in mind, Hat kid began preparing a meal.

It took a while to cook it all, what with the mainly seafood ingredients Mu had raided for her; but Our dear in the top hat was determined to make sure it all cooked well, considering the effort it took to get them...

After some time, it was all done. Just when Hat Kid was done with her meal, the navigation Computer pinged an alert: A timepiece was found and headed to the Mafia headquarters. Not long after came the notification from Mustache girl; they've primed the observatory cannon for launch. She'll go on ahead and wait at the headquarters entrance.

A last check at the computer revealed that the sky was perspiring again. Better make sure she had her raincoat on then. Once she was confident that everything was in place, Hat kid set off for the observatory building and its cannon.

* * *

 **Over at Mafia HQ:**

"Sir, the men have spotted the mustached girl on top of hq entrance. Men dealing with her now."

"Excellent. Now we wait for them to get into position, then it's Showtime!" the boss replied.

"Doctor, take your seat at the theatre. Watch the slimy alien go down and be full once more. No more shall anything pester mafia town again!"

"Yes boss."

"The techniques are up to snuff. The mafia ball and the equipment are ready. Now, girls, i've heard of your exploits and I'm intrigued. It's time you gave me one peck of a show!"

* * *

 _ **Mission start!**_

Hat kid managed to reach mafia headquarters with no incident. A short sweep of the goons pestering mu, and a relieving of a rift token from it's treasure chest later, the two girls were inside the mafia base.

The interior of the base was not what Hat kid had expected from them, Just a little. It was a casino or at least it looks like a casino, one that was low lid and a shadow of its former glory, if it even had glory in the first place. Directly in her view, a mafia goon took one of the timepieces into a room marked to be a theatre. She would race ahead into the theatre, except the guard goons swiftly made to intercept.

So it seems she had to find another way in… where's Mu?

A look around didn't yield results. The goons who were alert didn't say anything helpful. Only requests for her to leave. If they were even polite enough to give her that. Most of them were outright throwing cans at her. Sure, it didn't inflict more than a bump on her, but it did hurt. She did retaliate though, jumping on the offending mafia heads, but the joy it produced didn't last long. She went off to find someone who could supply answers.

Before long, Hat Kid found that someone; the bartender of the casino. On the surface, he looked just like any other mafia goon she'd met and occasionally, pounded. However, unlike the others, the bartender had the aura of a kindly soul, a councillor perhaps. Whatever the specific vibe was, Hat Kid had a strong feeling she could trust him.

Crossing over to the mafia bartender, Hat Kid sat on the stool in front of the man.

"What's troubling you, little girl? Mafia not know what child drink." the bartender asked her, concerned.

"Hmm, a nice mafia goon inside the headquarters. That's a pleasant surprise. Hopefully that'll last." Hat Kid thought.

"Whatever problem is, Mafia sure you can deal with it. You look like tenacious type, not leave problem alone. Other little girl ran into kitchen, if you are looking for her."

His face darkened at the mention.

"She look like unruly type. Keep eye on her."

"Thanks, mr bartender!" Hat Kid told him, leaping from the stool.

The badge seller was also there, sticking out like a sore thumb amongst the other mafia goons around. He's also probably invisible to the mafia goons, or the goons had gotten used to him? Whatever the case, Hat Kid was glad to see him.

The badge seller noticed her approaching, and greeted her;

"Not everything I sell is of value. I also sell terrible badges… Yet people buy them anyway."

All that he did have to sell though, was a mumble badge, 800 pons. Shame, really.

Taking a moment to blow a raspberry at a pair of mafia goons, Hat Kid proceeded to go for the door behind the bar when she saw the trapdoor. Looking around to ensure no one was watching, Hat Kid put on the ice beanie and slammed through the door.

Below the bar counter area was a small gambling den with four golden mafia statues standing opposite one another, two on each side. The single table in the room was filled with gambling tokens and the like. Seems like the goons were in the middle of a game. Pity Mu and her had to interrupt them, but Hat kid had a timepiece or two to retrieve.

The next room in the den had a present box. When she inspected it, she found a cow with sunglasses. Whoever was placing these "relics" around the planet, seems to like placing them in random, if not uninspired, places. Hmm...

Taking a last look around the den for any remaining stray items, Hat Kid left the spot to look for Mu.

She found Mustache Girl in the kitchen, just as the bartender said she would, standing guard next to the freezer door. A door that happened to have a padlock on it. Meaning that there should be a key around somewhere… Stepping on some of the cockroaches along the way, Hat Kid left the kitchen.

Jumping to the top of the bar, Hat Kid found that the rafters were easily jumpable from there. So up she went. There, she saw the pinnacle of Mafia incompetence in terms of cleanliness: Rats running around, mostly minding their own businesses. Putting on her brewing Hat, Hat Kid moved on. It seems that those rats don't take kindly to intruders either, making it a point to attack Hat Kid when they can. She struck back, making some of them victims of her homemade explosives. Despite the ruckus caused, none of the goons paid any attention to what's on top of them.

Reaching one end of the rafters, Hat Kid was surprised to find a cat, in chef's attire? Near a frying station? What's up with that? Noticing the attention given to her, the cat spoke up;

"The Mafia are terrible cooks. But fear not, Cooking Cat is here! I prepare the actual dinner up here, and swap the food before anyone takes the Mafia's cooking. I'm fairly certain someone would die if they took the mafia-prepared food!"

"It's alright, take the bucket of crabs if you like! I can always get some more!", Cooking cat told her, noticing the girl eyeing one of the buckets.

With a thank you, Hat Kid took the bucket down to the grounds bellow, following the feeling that she might need it later. Following a trail of pons through an open doorway, Hat Kid found a key locked behind a gate, an extremely sensitive button the only way to lift the gate. Taking the bucket, Hat Kid gently placed it down on the button. It lowered the gate, only to immediately raise it back up again. Feeling frustrated for the first time in a long while, Hat Kid grabbed the bucket and threw it down onto the button. Now it stayed down.

Leaving the bucket as it was, Hat Kid noticed the room marked with a mafia sign. Curious, she went in. Turned out that it was a mafia restroom/Toilet area. A goon was inside, but he was preoccupied with fixing his tie or something. Looking through the area and picking up the stray pons around, Hat Kid found a chest in what would have been the toilet supplies area. Inside was a rift token. Feeling another urge to blow a raspberry, Hat Kid blew it out to… someone. Stepping back to the hallway, Hat kid noted the cheers coming from the theatre. What kind of show was going on? Despite herself, Hat kid wanted to take a look at what qualified as Mafia entertainment. Get an insight into mafia psyche… Great. Now they've gotten her doing it too.

Retrieving the key from it's spot, Hat Kid now left for the kitchen. With an assurance that Mu has her back covered, Hat kid unlocked the door to the freezer. The cold struck her from the moment she went in, telling the girl she should retrieve whatever she needed and get out, the vent that she spotted when going in being the alternate exit.

Ascending a pile of crates, Hat Kid found a chest containing a ball of brewing yarn for her troubles. What with the fish lying in the freezer, Hat Kid wanted to make a fish pun, halibut she managed to reel in the urge and carry on. The path to that vent was clear.

It was actually navigating through that was the harder part, but she managed it easily. Crawling through, Hat Kid found to her delight that the vent connected her to the theatre itself. Taking a moment to take in the sight of the wealth within, and busting open a barrel, a sprint yarn ball for her trouble, Hat Kid stepped out onto the red carpet.

There it was, a timepiece. In the hands of the one Mustache Girl called the Boss of the Mafia. He seemed free. Not to mention bored. Looks like the theatre would have to try harder to entertain him. In the meantime, she would try to get back her timepiece.

Before she could get any closer, gates slammed shut and from unseen chambers, two mafia goons stepped out, ready to do battle with the intruder. Unfortunately for the two brave mafia goons, they weren't the elite bodyguards they thought they were. Even if they were, they underestimated the determination of the young girl with the witch hat before them. Under the weight of hits from the umbrella, the occasional hit on the head and the damage from the explosive chemicals Hat kid brought along, the two goons were dealt with. Impressed with Hat Kid, the Mafia boss signalled for the gates to be opened again. Taking a deep breath, Hat Kid stepped forward. From an unknown set of speakers, a piece of music started playing *Sonic Mania's _Danger on the Dance Floor_ *. Taking it as a cue, the mafia boss jumped down to greet her.

"So… It is you! The new troublemaker that I've been informed about!" the Mafia boss shouted.

"It's I. You know what I'm here for, So let's get it done with.", Hat Kid thought, looking back at him defiantly.

"Ever since you've landed in Mafia Town, it's been raining these magical Hourglasses.

You must be very lost, kid with the hat. You're in the heart of our town. Standing before the most powerful man you will ever witness.", the mafia boss continued in that same tone, every word dripping with anger at the troublemaker. "Everything you've ever owned belongs to _me_ now, Including this magical hourglass piece." the mafia boss told her softly, before grinning evilly. "If you want it, we'll have to settle this in true Mafia Style!"

The lights and the music cut off. When it turned back on again, the Mafia Boss had drawn out his twin knives and brandished them in a cross guard position.

"So be it then," hat Kid thought, taking out her own umbrella.

"That's more like it. Lights, Camera! It is… Showtime!"

The curtains came up, revealing to Hat Kid that they were not in fact at the audience stand. They were on the stage, being watched by the mafia members. "It wasn't a show that the mafia goons were there for," Hat Kid realised. "It was to be a gladiator styled battle. Unfortunately for them," Hat Kid told herself grimly, "It would be the utter defeat of their boss." The music came on, (*Hi-Spec Robo Go!*) and the show began.

With a kiai, the mafia boss came charging at Hat Kid, knives swinging wildly.

The loudness and the speed of the boss caught Hat Kid off guard, leaving the girl open to the Mafia Boss' wild swings. She tried to dodge out of the way, but it was too late, a few of the slashes found their mark, drawing out blood from the kid. The crowds went wild, demanding more. The wound was but a nick at the flesh, but it was painful enough to elect a cry of pain from Hat Kid.

Fortunately, she'd handled far worst back home to not be rendered out from the fight. Hat Kid managed to get some distance away from the boss, hoping that would be the end of that assault. However, said boss wasn't done from his swinging slashes just yet, coming at Hat Kid again. Seeing the gap in the Boss' swings, Hat Kid took advantage of it to dive at the boss, clear of the swings and smacking his head.

Now it was his turn to yell in pain and drop off a health pon from his pocket. Yelling murder, the boss leaped to the end of his side of the stage. Spinning on the spot, the Mafia boss sent out electric waves along the floor of the stage. Jumping nimbly over them, Hat Kid then dived at the Mafia Boss. She managed to score a hit, sure, but overestimated her jump and bumped head first at the stage wall there for her trouble. By then, the Mafia Boss had gotten dizzy from the spinning, allowing Hat Kid to swing her umbrella at the man.

Leaping off the stage, the Mafia Boss whistled; his signal for the backstage Mafia to drop sandbags down on Hat Kid's head. Thanks to the shadows on the floor, that attempt failed. Once the attack was over, the boss jumped back onto the stage. It was at this point when Hat Kid discovered how heavy the Boss was despite his own height; what with the impact made and the dust clouds the man kicked up when he landed back on the stage and all.

He tried the slashing charge at Hat Kid again, but Hat Kid was ready for it this time, meeting it with a gravity defying "Homing attack" to the man's head just like the previous time. The progress Hat Kid made on dealing with the boss infuriated him. Normally, his kiai and swinging slashes would have disorientated opponents long enough for several passes with that maneuver to completely deal with them. This girl, however, she was a whole different level all together. Not only did she snap out of her disorientation from his kiai quickly enough to avoid certain death from his wild slashes, she also defied gravity itself to dive past his swings to actually hurt him. Oddly enough, this pleased him. Finally, a challenge that required him to have to use the full range of his authority as Mafia Boss. Fortunately, as he'd been told earlier, he's got at least another short trump card to use…

Leaping onto a higher platform, the boss threw his knives towards the edges of the stage. Hat Kid looked back at him smugly. Is that all he's got? Seems like this next move would be easier to deal with…

The smirk was wiped clean off when the Boss jumped onto her current position, clearly attempting to squash her. Hat Kid barely managed to get out of there in time. With his hands outstretched, the boss summoned back his knives, the left one first. Taking advantage of his vulnerable position, Hat Kid attacked him right there.

"So… How would you like a two-pronged attack then?", the Mafia boss thought. Leaping back into the seating gallery, the boss whistled out the change in tactics.

The Sandbags were set into position and Hat Kid was feeling confident. Then came the mafia goon from her right hand side backstage entrance. The goon charged at her and shortly after, the bags came falling. Hat Kid panicked at this juncture before remembering that she did have a means of countering this tactic, her ice beanie. Putting it on and manipulating the moisture into being ice, she saw that she was just in time. The goon was too quick to notice the sudden change and collided head-on with the ice, fall onto his bum. He did managed to recover quickly enough to dodge the sandbags by jumping off the stage.

During the distraction caused by the two way attack, The boss tried to smash open Hat Kid's ice armour via a stomp, but it too, failed.

Furious that his attempt at tactics failed, the Mafia Boss decided that it's time to reveal his triumph card. Jumping onto the upper platform, Mafia Boss gave his signal. Given the go ahead, the backstage crew dropped down for Hat Kid's 'viewing pleasure,' and horror, a tied up Mustache Girl.

"I've got your friend captured. And soon you'll both perish!", the Mafia Boss declared.

"Let go of me, you psycho!", Mu screamed.

The sight was too much to bear for Hat Kid, and she trembled.

"I've… I've come so far. Been on a journey from my home planet to a place to get what I need for a rite of passage from childhood to teenage years. Seen many things and on my way home, happened to drop by your planet. Then I get held up by your men, stranded here and now I have to gather the fuel for the ship again! All I wanted was to collect them all up in piece and now you spring this on me! You said you wanted to settle this in true mafia style?" She gripped her umbrella in a two handed position. "You'll get true mafia style."

From that point, the battle truly began. Every attack from the boss was met with the counterattack. The newest tactic to the mix, the mafia ball maneuver (a legion of mafia members all together to form a giant ball), was met with a Fludd water rocket boost up to where the boss was, to his shock, and hit him hard with the umbrella.

After three more blows to the Mafia Boss, he once again tried to launch his 'ultra charge' attack, (the electric shockwaves and electric ball technique) at Hat Kid. She tried to bounce off his head during the attack. While she was successful in inflicting damage, she did drop off into the path of an electric shockwave and got hit for it. After the last electric ball swept past, Hat Kid jumped at the boss again and landed the blow that brought the mafia boss down.

"It can't be!" he shouted as he collapsed. Unfortunately for the mafia boss; the impact triggered some explosive snuck on him, splattering Hat Kid and some of the audience in "paint". As the curtains went down on the show, the hourglass that was nearby flew to the middle of the stage.

Taking in the cheers of some of the folks in the audience, Hat Kid blew some kisses at them before retrieving the timepiece.

* * *

Looking back up at the stage after that loud explosion; the remaining mafia goons were greeted by the sight of Hat Kid and the freed Mustached Girl staring back at them. 

The goons, realizing the implications of the two still alive girls, fled the theatre as fast as their legs could carry them, some of them crying in fear. Glad that at long last, she could check off the timepieces that the mafia held, Hat Kid was about to pocket the fruit of this endeavour when something sped past her. Shrugging off the dizziness from that moment, Hat Kid made to look at the timepiece again, only to find it missing. 

Turning around, she saw it being juggled by Mustache Girl. 

"Wha?" 

"So, what do these things do anyway? Are they some sort of rare collectors' items for… _nerds_?" 

The girl tried to do a fancy juggle move, only to accidently knock it forward. That snapped Hat Kid's attention back to the present. She had to get it before it broke and… _Too late._

The timepiece broke, rewinding time back to when Mustache Girl was wondering about the timepiece's purpose. She began along that chain of thought, only to realise what happened. 

"Whoa? What?" Mustache Girl could only stutter out, staring at the now repaired timepiece on the floor. Throughout all this, Hat Kid stood there, scratching her head. Great. Now Mu knows what the timepieces can do. Hopefully she could keep calm and sane about this revelation, otherwise… 

"Wha… did, uhm… did you know about this?" Mu questioned. 

Taking this opportunity, Hat Kid firmly stepped forward and took back the timepiece. 

Once the timepiece was back in her hands, Hat Kid's face softened and nodded. 

Mu pondered through all that she had seen before grinning widely. 

"Oh no, surely she's not thinking what I think she's thinking about…" Hat Kid thought as she looked between the timepiece and Mu's face. 

"This is amazing!" Mu said, waving her hands about. 

"Do you even realize what could be done with these?" 

"Yep. Definitely thinking about those." Hat Kid told herself. 

Now eager about the possibilities, Mu continued on about her new plans; on how they could rewind time to avoid her falling for the goon who tricked her into playing pattycake before punching her while her guard was down. How they could defeat the mafia, then rewind time and beat them all over again. How they could ensure the mafia never arrive on the island in the first place. Or even better, use the timepiece to be time travelling crime fighters! 

Mustache Girl had said enough. Now she was waiting for Hat Kid's agreement on the matter. But it never came. All Hat Kid wanted from that alliance was just to grab the timepieces and get back home, plain and simple. To symbolise that, she turned the timepiece to the side and pocketed it. 

That did not sit well with Mustache Girl, who tried to call her out on her decision. To have the ability to turn back time and right all the wrongs with the world? On the surface, it all sounded good. But Hat Kid had paid attention to her teachers on the matter. Sure, there was seemingly no harm in doing that, but what of the repercussions? All the things that could be displaced or gone wrong because of that fixing? Not to mention what using the timepieces could do to the person who wasn't ready for that power? 

She couldn't let that happen. Not under her watch. Especially not to a friend. Hat Kid would have tried to explain matters to Mu, but it was clear that the girl had made up her mind. So must Hat Kid. Firmly, Hat Kid shook her head. 

Mustache Girl was clearly saddened by this decision, but instead of taking it calmly and trying to weasel out an explanation like she deeply hoped she would, Mu's sadness turned to anger. 

"If you won't use them to fight evil, then I will." Mustache Girl told her darkly. 

Suddenly, she came up close and personal at Hat Kid. Both girls stared at each other evenly as Mu declares; "I'm not gonna let this island remain as Mafia Town! I'll gather all the timepieces by myself! 

You have my word for it!" With that, Mustache Girl ran off. 

Hat Kid watched her go sadly. Now she's once again a stranger alone on this planet. How was she going to hold herself together to grab all the timepieces and save Mu from herself once the power corruption began? Leaving that chain of thought aside, Hat Kid went to her pockets, only to find them feeling lighter. Frantically searching through her pockets, Hat Kid found that Mu had pickpocketed half of her pons. Her friendship bond with Mu was broken because of this. Now, they were enemies on this quest.

* * *

The Mafia bartender was one of the most alert of the goons of the Mafia of the Cook. A drinks master in training, given counselling training to ensure that the goons and all visitors to his bar did not intoxicate themselves when drowning down their sorrows, as well as to try to talk them through their issues. Once he saw the mafia goons bursting through the theatre doors crying, he already guessed what had happened. When Mu came by, the bartender's suspicions were confirmed. Though, when the girl in the Hat came by, dragging her feet along the way, the bartender could not help but feel some sympathy for her. He'd already guessed that Hat Kid was on some mission, given that the girl would not leave the base when the goons tried to shoo her out. But when the other goons ran out, he suspected that mission was accomplished. Yet the girl was dragging her feet when passing by. Mission failure? Or, yes, mission success but something else happened that made the kid feel unhappy? 

Just then, Dr Mafiaso came by the bar. 

"So, it happened, Dr Mafiaso?" 

"Yes, boss was defeated. The alien girl defeated him. But, something came up between girl and mustached menace. Now, they split up." 

"Hmm, I see. I would have liked to counsel her myself, but I have a feeling she might not take well to having mafia by her side… Hold on, I believe I know who might be able to help." 

"Her?" 

"Yes! Who else do we both know who can be trusted with looking after the girl?" 

"Good point." 

The two mafia men went up to the rafters, where the cooking cat was. 

"Good to see you two again! It's been a long time since I've talked to you face to face, my good sir! What can I do for you, Bartender, Dr Mafiaso?" 

"Good to see you too, Cooking Cat. You see…"

* * *

 **Back at the spaceship:**

Once Hat kid had returned to the spaceship, the tired girl placed the retrieved timepiece into its proper place and went off to shower in the kitchen side bathroom. Once she was satisfied with the temperature of the water flowing down her body, Hat Kid turned her attention to the events of the day. Could she have prevented this breakup from happening? If she'd joined the girl, would that have toned down what she'd planned to do, or would it have not done a thing to change her course? Breaking the friendship chain later rather than sooner? Or…

Just then, a knocking sound was heard. 

Taking a moment to dry and dress herself enough to greet visitors without making the meeting awkward, (a t-shirt and trousers,) Hat Kid went to see who's knocking. 

It was a group of humanoid owls in suits. 

"Hey there," the lead owl said, raising his hat to her. 

"We're the Express Band. Just a bunch of owls that got together to play music while riding the Conductor's Owl Express. Is it ok if we practised here? In exchange, if you have any song requests, we'll be happy to play whatever song you have in mind!" 

The possibilities raised was pleasing to Hat Kid. She longed for her own personal band before, and now one had come to her. Plus, if need be, she could ask for intel from those owls to blend in while collecting timepieces from their home turfs… 

Agreeing, Hat Kid fully opened the door and invited the owls in. 

Once the owls had finished shifting their equipment in, Hat Kid told the owls to wait in the bridge while she sorted out the only suitable room she had available. Having been given the nods of acknowledgement, Hat Kid went to restore power to, then inspect and clean up the machine room for any potential damage. It did not take too long to do and while the Bridge monitors told her that there was no damage done to the ship, there's no harm in double checking, right? 

So having done so, Hat Kid invited the Express band to the Machine room to inspect their future living and practise place. 

After a brief look at the machine room, the owls voiced their satisfaction on the place they've been given to practise in. With the location solidified, girl and owls confirmed the terms of the band's stay in the ship and with that, the teleport codes to access the ship.

Pleased with the deal done, Hat Kid went off to finish her bath before planning the rest of the night.

* * *

 **Author's notes:** Greetings readers. Thank you for waiting so long for this new chapter. I hope that you've enjoyed it! It had been draining for me in thinking up the details to fill in the gaps in the gameplay that I've recorded, hence part of the reason why this one took so long. That, and life in general…

Either way, now that there is a trailer for the first dlc, I feel it appropriate to comment on it's effects on this story: For now, I don't think the DLC chapters will be part of this fanfic specifically. Maybe some tidbits (& backstory) will slip through, but the storyline of the dlc chapters will not be in this story.

Regarding the new time rifts, If I can figure out how to incorporate those rifts into the story that I'm telling, (considering that we still don't know where the entrance to said rifts will be), I'll do my best to put them in.

For the deathwish mode, I'll most likely just put some of the rewards in, again, if I can incorporate them into the story, or just as a running gag, similar to the giftboxes in the post-game quest for the secret reports in TWEWY.

With that, this is the end of the author's notes for this Fanfic chapter. Chapters will come in at irregular intervals. If you have any fanart for the story, be sure to tag me with Maxieprodmoore on twitter. Thanks & stay tuned for the next chapter! Till next time! Maxieprodmoore out.


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